Dan Campbell spent most of Sunday's loss to the Bengals stalking the Lions' sideline, his jaw clenched, his neck veins swollen, his face turning red. When the game spiraled in the second half, Campbell had the look of a coach who wanted to play, who wanted to storm the field and hit the first thing in sight. He might have been an upgrade over his players, who were routed at home to fall to 0-6 on the season.
Campbell shed tears for his team after it lost to the Vikings. He was out of pity a week later. He clenched the podium, pointed in disgust toward the field and nearly tore apart a box score after the Bengals ripped through the Lions. "They whipped our ass," he said, and that was the truth. As Detroit enters the seventh week of the season searching for its first win, Campbell said Monday his message to his players is simple:
"You've got a job to do. This game is the best game in the world, man. It’s a privilege to play it."
Campbell would know. He did a decade of dirty work in the NFL as a blocking tight end, and he'd do a decade more if he could. He wants his players to show the same hunger for the game.
"Shoot, man, if I could go back right now, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’d give up a body part as long as that body part didn’t affect the way I play football," Campbell said. "I’d do it to go back and play again. You miss it. You miss the locker room, you miss the competition, you miss being on the road and you can’t hear anything in a hostile environment. You miss that, man.
"So at the end of the day, no matter what the record is, no matter how bad things may seem, somebody’s going to line up across from you and if that doesn’t give you enough juice to want to win and beat them one on one, you’re in the wrong business."
Campbell bore the brunt of the blame after Sunday's game. He said "your freaking head coach" has a hand in any blowout loss. When he knocked his players, he lamented their focus more than their effort. He struck a similar tone Monday, while noting the Lions are considering a couple shake-ups to their roster. He said the coaching staff has to "keep tinkering and find the best solution that we can.
"We’re a new staff and we’re learning and growing and working and figuring each other out. The staff is no different than the players," he said. "You have strengths and weaknesses, and how do you complement each other is something that we’re also working with right now. It doesn’t make anybody feel better, but that’s the reality of it. We’re having to get through some of these bumps and bruises and figure things out right now. We’ll just keep tinkering and figure out what we can."